Monthly Archives: July 2014

When I first heard about Sharknado, the name itself told me it was dumb. So imagine my surprise when I read about how it’s becoming a cult hit.

That surprise didn’t last though the moment my eyes ran across the only reason something this dumb could’ve been this big: “So bad, it’s good.” This isn’t new but it still works and apparently, this Sharknado trend is using it as a winning marketing formula. The first Sharknado created such a storm on Twitter last year that lead actor Ian Ziering has warned Twitter of as second wave once the movie’s sequel is released.

Now can this formula work in the context of B2B enterprise? You’d think not. Software leads are generated when you present your technology perfectly aligning with the needs of a prospect. You don’t present it in a way that’s typical, so cliché, so B-movieish, that you wouldn’t dream of pitching it like they did Sharknado.

Thinking like that though could explain why you’re not seeing the charm. Making something ‘so bad, it’s good’ is actually the very essence of self-parody. And yes, there’s a lot of situations where you can use it in your own B2B marketing campaign:

Dwayne Johnson’s Hercules may not have been the best film out there but watching it really hit a lot of nails when it comes to the power of marketing. That’s right. At the risk of spoilers, one integral part of the film’s whole plot was the marketing capacity of Hercules’ entire group.

You can use the most advanced, home-grown technology to acquire software leads. But at the heart of it all, marketing is still an ancient tradition that uses stories in order to build reputation. They did it in Hercules’ time. You’re still doing it today.

One of the biggest problems in marketing business software is contending with the folks who fear the technology. At times these fears are baseless, but other times these aren’t so much fears as they are legitimate concerns.

Among the most notable is that new technology often diminishes time-honored skills. Case in point: handwriting and the keyboard.

Tackling these concerns should be a staple in your software lead generation strategy. It’s not that people fear technology. It’s simply that they value certain skills and they don’t want technology causing these skills to fade.

Around a week ago, I stumbled on this really informative blog post about forming habits. It spoke of dividing writing routines around certain devices (articles on PC, opinions on laptop etc). It was just what I needed as a reference for my own blog. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find it because I just found it on my Twitter feed (yeah, good luck searching through that mess).

I spent a good hour and a half thinking up of the right keyword combination and timeframe but it just didn’t work. I couldn’t find it and good part of my morning routine got thrown off track.

Any of this sounds familiar? Something goes missing? Habits fall apart, followed by a productive routine? See that’s exactly what happens when you send over bad software leads even to successful sales reps.